Zero-knowledge proof for blockchain endorsement

ABSTRACT

An example operation may include one or more of receiving one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain, extracting transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses, generating a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses, and transmitting the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application generally relates to a blockchain endorsement process, and more particularly, to a zero-knowledge proof which can be used as proof of endorsement while concealing an identity of the endorser nodes and the endorsement policy.

BACKGROUND

A centralized database stores and maintains data in a single database (e.g., a database server) at one location. This location is often a central computer, for example, a desktop central processing unit (CPU), a server CPU, or a mainframe computer. Information stored on a centralized database is typically accessible from multiple different points. Multiple users or client workstations can work simultaneously on the centralized database, for example, based on a client/server configuration. A centralized database is easy to manage, maintain, and control, especially for purposes of security because of its single location. Within a centralized database, data redundancy is minimized as a single storing place of all data also implies that a given set of data only has one primary record.

However, a centralized database suffers from significant drawbacks. For example, a centralized database has a single point of failure. Therefore, if a hardware failure occurs, all data within the database is lost and work of all users is interrupted. In addition, centralized databases are highly dependent on network connectivity. As a result, the slower the connection, the amount of time needed for each database access is increased. Another drawback is the occurrence of bottlenecks when a centralized database experiences high traffic due to a single location. Furthermore, a centralized database provides limited access to data because only one copy of the data is maintained by the database. As a result, multiple devices cannot access the same piece of data at the same time without creating significant problems or risk overwriting stored data. Furthermore, because a database storage system has minimal to no data redundancy, data that is unexpectedly lost is very difficult to retrieve other than through manual operation from back-up storage.

Blockchain provides a solution to such drawbacks and limitations associated with conventional databases. Blockchain provides a distributed database in which data may only be added to the blockchain after it is endorsed (agreed upon) by a group of untrusting parties referred to as endorsing nodes. To provide a level of auditability, an endorsing node stores their identity (e.g., public key) along with their endorsement result/determination on the blockchain. Open endorsement provides public verifiability, but can lead to potential risks such as attacks and data leakage.

For example, by mining transaction history, attackers can identify active endorsers or those that endorse certain type of transactions and mount targeted attacks (e.g., denial-of-service attacks, etc.) As another example, because submitting clients have rights to choose endorsing peers subject to a pre-defined endorsement policy, mining all transactions related to a specific client ID can reveal sensitive information such as client's preference on endorsers, trust level on different endorsers manifested through order of choice, geo-location, and the like. As such, what is needed is a solution that overcomes these drawbacks and limitations by concealing endorser node identities while still enabling auditability of the endorsement/verification performed by validating nodes and clients.

SUMMARY

One example embodiment provides a system that includes one or more of a network interface configured to receive one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain, and a processor configured to one or more of extract transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses, generate a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses, and control the network interface to transmit the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks.

Another example embodiment provides a method that includes one or more of receiving one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain, extracting transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses, generating a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses, and transmitting the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks.

Another example embodiment provides a method that includes one or more of receiving a message comprising a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement of a blockchain storage request for inclusion within a data block among the blockchain, reading an encrypted endorsement policy via application programming interface (API) calls to a chaincode of the blockchain, determining whether the zero-knowledge proof is valid based on the encrypted endorsement policy and a plurality of attributes of the zero-knowledge proof, and in response to determining the zero-knowledge proof is valid, storing the blockchain storage request within a data section of a data block on the blockchain.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a blockchain network which implements a zero-knowledge proof endorsement, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating an example blockchain architecture configuration, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a traditional blockchain transactional flow, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating a permissioned network, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating another permissioned network, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating a communication sequence for endorsement according to example embodiments.

FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating a process of generating a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement and FIG. 4C is a diagram illustrating a process of verifying a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement according to example embodiments.

FIG. 5A is a flow diagram illustrating a method of generating a zero-knowledge proof for endorsement, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram illustrating a method verifying a zero-knowledge proof for endorsement, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating an example system configured to perform one or more operations described herein, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating another example system configured to perform one or more operations described herein, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6C is a diagram illustrating a further example system configured to utilize a smart contract, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6D is a diagram illustrating yet another example system configured to utilize a blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating a process for a new block being added to a distributed ledger, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating contents of a new data block, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7C is a diagram illustrating a blockchain for digital content, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7D is a diagram illustrating a block which may represent the structure of blocks in the blockchain, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example system that supports one or more of the example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It will be readily understood that the instant components, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of at least one of a method, apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium and system, as represented in the attached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the application as claimed but is merely representative of selected embodiments.

The instant features, structures, or characteristics as described throughout this specification may be combined or removed in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases “example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “in some embodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language, throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined or removed in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

In addition, while the term “message” may have been used in the description of embodiments, the application may be applied to many types of networks and data. Furthermore, while certain types of connections, messages, and signaling may be depicted in exemplary embodiments, the application is not limited to a certain type of connection, message, and signaling.

Example embodiments provide methods, systems, components, non-transitory computer readable media, devices, and/or networks, which implement a zero-knowledge proof endorsement mechanism for blockchain storage systems.

In one embodiment the application utilizes a decentralized database (such as a blockchain) that is a distributed storage system, which includes multiple nodes that communicate with each other. The decentralized database includes an append-only immutable data structure resembling a distributed ledger capable of maintaining records between mutually untrusted parties. The untrusted parties are referred to herein as peers or peer nodes. Each peer maintains a copy of the database records and no single peer can modify the database records without a consensus being reached among the distributed peers. For example, the peers may execute a consensus protocol to validate blockchain storage transactions, group the storage transactions into blocks, and build a hash chain over the blocks. This process forms the ledger by ordering the storage transactions, as is necessary, for consistency. In various embodiments, a permissioned and/or a permissionless blockchain can be used. In a public or permission-less blockchain, anyone can participate without a specific identity. Public blockchains often involve native cryptocurrency and use consensus based on various protocols such as Proof of Work (PoW). On the other hand, a permissioned blockchain database provides secure interactions among a group of entities which share a common goal but which do not fully trust one another, such as businesses that exchange funds, goods, information, and the like.

The examples herein can utilize a blockchain that operates arbitrary, programmable logic, tailored to a decentralized storage scheme and referred to as “smart contracts” or “chaincodes.” In some cases, specialized chaincodes may exist for management functions and parameters which are referred to as system chaincode. The application can further utilize smart contracts that are trusted distributed applications which leverage tamper-proof properties of the blockchain database and an underlying agreement between nodes, which is referred to as an endorsement or endorsement policy. Blockchain transactions associated with this application can be “endorsed” before being committed to the blockchain while transactions, which are not endorsed, are disregarded. An endorsement policy allows chaincode to specify endorsers for a transaction in the form of a set of peer nodes that are necessary for endorsement. When a client sends the transaction to the peers specified in the endorsement policy, the transaction is executed to validate the transaction. After validation, the transactions enter an ordering phase in which a consensus protocol is used to produce an ordered sequence of endorsed transactions grouped into blocks.

The examples herein can utilize nodes that are the communication entities of the blockchain system. A “node” may perform a logical function in the sense that multiple nodes of different types can run on the same physical server. Nodes are grouped in trust domains and are associated with logical entities that control them in various ways. Nodes may include different types, such as a client or submitting-client node which submits a transaction-invocation to an endorser (e.g., peer), and broadcasts transaction-proposals to an ordering service (e.g., ordering node). Another type of node is a peer node which can receive client submitted transactions, commit the transactions and maintain a state and a copy of the ledger of blockchain transactions. Peers can also have the role of an endorser, although it is not a requirement. An ordering-service-node or orderer is a node running the communication service for all nodes, and which implements a delivery guarantee, such as a broadcast to each of the peer nodes in the system when committing transactions and modifying a world state of the blockchain, which is another name for the initial blockchain transaction which normally includes control and setup information.

The examples herein can utilize a ledger that is a sequenced, tamper-resistant record of all state transitions of a blockchain. State transitions may result from chaincode invocations (i.e., transactions) submitted by participating parties (e.g., client nodes, ordering nodes, endorser nodes, peer nodes, etc.). Each participating party (such as a peer node) can maintain a copy of the ledger. A transaction may result in a set of asset key-value pairs being committed to the ledger as one or more operands, such as creates, updates, deletes, and the like. The ledger includes a blockchain (also referred to as a chain) which is used to store an immutable, sequenced record in blocks. The ledger also includes a state database which maintains a current state of the blockchain.

The examples herein can utilize a chain that is a transaction log which is structured as hash-linked blocks, and each block contains a sequence of N transactions where N is equal to or greater than one. The block header includes a hash of the block's transactions, as well as a hash of the prior block's header. In this way, all transactions on the ledger may be sequenced and cryptographically linked together. Accordingly, it is not possible to tamper with the ledger data without breaking the hash links. A hash of a most recently added blockchain block represents every transaction on the chain that has come before it, making it possible to ensure that all peer nodes are in a consistent and trusted state. The chain may be stored on a peer node file system (i.e., local, attached storage, cloud, etc.), efficiently supporting the append-only nature of the blockchain workload.

The current state of the immutable ledger represents the latest values for all keys that are included in the chain transaction log. Since the current state represents the latest key values known to a channel, it is sometimes referred to as a world state. Chaincode invocations execute transactions against the current state data of the ledger. To make these chaincode interactions efficient, the latest values of the keys may be stored in a state database. The state database may be simply an indexed view into the chain's transaction log, it can therefore be regenerated from the chain at any time. The state database may automatically be recovered (or generated if needed) upon peer node startup, and before transactions are accepted.

Traditional endorsement processes require an endorser node identify themselves (with their public key) when they validate a blockchain transaction. In particular, a client node may submit a transaction request to an endorser node. In response, the endorser node may validate the transaction request against a current state of the blockchain, sign the transaction with a public key unique to the endorser, and transmit a response to the client node with the signed transaction. In response, the transaction (and a list of endorser signatures) are stored on the blockchain. However, by revealing the identity of its endorsers, a blockchain becomes susceptible to security concerns. For example, attackers can identify active endorsers or those that endorse certain type of transactions and mount targeted attacks (e.g., denial-of-service attacks, etc.) As another example, because submitting clients have rights to choose endorsing peers subject to a pre-defined endorsement policy, mining all transactions related to a specific client ID can reveal sensitive information such as client's preference on endorsers, trust level on different endorsers manifested through order of choice, geo-location, and the like.

The example embodiments overcome these challenges by provide a mechanism which allows an endorser node to endorse/validate a transaction while not revealing their identity or the identity of an endorsement policy that is adhered to by the blockchain. Endorser nodes may validate and sign transactions as they normally would using their respective public keys. The endorser responses may be returned to the client system. However, rather than collect the signatures and send a transaction package to the ordering node with the public keys of the endorser nodes exposed, the client may build a zero-knowledge proof data object based on various components of the transaction (e.g., read/write set, transaction ID, chaincode ID, etc.), encrypted endorser responses, an encrypted endorsement policy, and a regulator's public key which is used to encrypt the endorser responses and the endorsement policy. These attributes may be processed using a zero-knowledge proof protocol such as zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zkSNARK) program. Therefore, instead of passing the endorser response to the ordering node, the client system can generate transaction response that includes the zero-knowledge proof data object along with the extracted transaction data, the encrypted endorser responses, and the regulator's public key to the ordering node.

Furthermore, a verification node (e.g., a committing node, an auditor, etc.) can determine whether the zero-knowledge proof satisfies the endorsement policy by running the zero-knowledge proof data object through a verification program. Here, the verification node may retrieve the encrypted endorsement policy from chaincode data and input the received data from the client such as the extracted transaction data, zero-knowledge proof data object, encrypted endorser responses, the regulator's public key, and the encrypted endorsement policy into the verification program. In response, the verification program (e.g., zkSNARK, etc.) can identify whether the endorser response satisfy the endorsement policy without revealing the plaintext of the endorser response or the endorsement policy. Instead, the verification program can output TRUE or FALSE.

Some benefits of the instant solutions described and depicted herein include making the process of endorsement on the blockchain platform privacy preserving, such that blockchain users or participants cannot tell who actually endorsed the transaction. The endorsement process has been modified by the example embodiments to make it privacy-preserving. In particular, a client can use zero-knowledge proofs to replace the original endorsements in the transaction proposal but still preserve the ability to publicly check the validity of endorsements against endorsement policy. The example embodiments create a functional improvement (privacy-preserving endorsements) to a blockchain fabric by allowing endorsing peers to sign/endorse transactions without revealing their identity (public key). In fact, the client and the endorser nodes may not be aware of the endorsement policy.

FIG. 1 illustrates a blockchain network 100 which implements a zero-knowledge proof for endorsement, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 1, the blockchain network 100 includes nodes that participate in a blockchain (not shown) which may be replicated and distributed among a plurality of peer nodes 120-124. The nodes may be connected to each other via a network 110. In the example of FIG. 1, each of the peer nodes 120-124 may store a copy of the blockchain. However, peer nodes 123 and 124 also perform roles of endorsers while peer nodes 120, 121, and 122 do not perform the role of endorsement. A client system 130 may communicate with any of the peer nodes 120-124 as a gateway to access (store, retrieve, modify, etc.) data on the blockchain. For example, the client system 130 may transmit a transaction request to peer node 121. The transaction type is not limited to any particular type.

In this example, an endorsement policy may dictate that both of the endorser nodes 123 and 124 endorse a transaction before it can be stored on the blockchain. Therefore, before the transaction submitted by the client 130 can be stored throughout the blockchain, it must receive endorsements from both of the endorser nodes 123 and 124. Each endorser node may simulate the transaction against a current state of the blockchain database to ensure that the transaction is valid. An example of the endorsement process is described with respect to FIG. 2B. After determining whether to endorse the transaction, each of the endorser nodes 123 and 124 generate a response message and transmit the response message to the client node (peer node 121 and client 130).

In response to receiving the endorsement responses from endorsing peers 123 and 124, the client 130 may construct a zero-knowledge proof of the endorsement. Here, the client 130 may reconstruct the endorsement policy from the returned shares, extract transaction data (e.g., read/write set, transaction ID, chaincode ID, etc.) from the transaction, and encrypt the endorsement responses with a regulator's public key which is provided to the client 130 ahead of time. Further, the client 130 may encrypt the endorsement policy using the regulator's public key and generate a zero-knowledge proof based on the transaction data, the encrypted endorser responses, the encrypted endorsement policy, and the regulator's public key to generate a zero-knowledge proof data object 132 which is then forwarded to the ordering node 125 for inclusion within the blockchain.

The ordering node may assemble the zero-knowledge proof and the additionally received data (transaction data, encrypted endorsement response, encrypted endorsement policy, and regulator's public key) into a data block which is then provided to committing nodes such as the peer nodes 120-124. Each of the committing nodes may verify the zero-knowledge proof data object based on a verification program provided by the trusted board who set up the blockchain system, in advance, prior to storing the block on the blockchain.

The example embodiments hide both the identity of an endorser and the actual endorsement policy. This is a critical step towards achieving transaction privacy in permissioned blockchain networks such as Hyperledger Fabric. Apart from ensuring privacy, it can also help in preventing targeted security attacks (e.g., denial of service attacks) in the blockchain network.

FIG. 2A illustrates a blockchain architecture configuration 200, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 2A, the blockchain architecture 200 may include certain blockchain elements, for example, a group of blockchain nodes 202. The blockchain nodes 202 may include one or more nodes 204-210 (these four nodes are depicted by example only). These nodes participate in a number of activities, such as blockchain transaction addition and validation process (consensus). One or more of the blockchain nodes 204-210 may endorse transactions based on endorsement policy and may provide an ordering service for all blockchain nodes in the architecture 200. A blockchain node may initiate a blockchain authentication and seek to write to a blockchain immutable ledger stored in blockchain layer 216, a copy of which may also be stored on the underpinning physical infrastructure 214. The blockchain configuration may include one or more applications 224 which are linked to application programming interfaces (APIs) 222 to access and execute stored program/application code 220 (e.g., chaincode, smart contracts, etc.) which can be created according to a customized configuration sought by participants and can maintain their own state, control their own assets, and receive external information. This can be deployed as a transaction and installed, via appending to the distributed ledger, on all blockchain nodes 204-210.

The blockchain base or platform 212 may include various layers of blockchain data, services (e.g., cryptographic trust services, virtual execution environment, etc.), and underpinning physical computer infrastructure that may be used to receive and store new transactions and provide access to auditors which are seeking to access data entries. The blockchain layer 216 may expose an interface that provides access to the virtual execution environment necessary to process the program code and engage the physical infrastructure 214. Cryptographic trust services 218 may be used to verify transactions such as asset exchange transactions and keep information private.

The blockchain architecture configuration of FIG. 2A may process and execute program/application code 220 via one or more interfaces exposed, and services provided, by blockchain platform 212. The code 220 may control blockchain assets. For example, the code 220 can store and transfer data, and may be executed by nodes 204-210 in the form of a smart contract and associated chaincode with conditions or other code elements subject to its execution. As a non-limiting example, smart contracts may be created to execute reminders, updates, and/or other notifications subject to the changes, updates, etc. The smart contracts can themselves be used to identify rules associated with authorization and access requirements and usage of the ledger. For example, the information 226 may include data to be processed by one or more processing entities (e.g., virtual machines) included in the blockchain layer 216. The result 228 may include processing results of executing the chaincode. The physical infrastructure 214 may be utilized to retrieve any of the data or information described herein.

A smart contract may be created via a high-level application and programming language, and then written to a block in the blockchain. The smart contract may include executable code which is registered, stored, and/or replicated with a blockchain (e.g., distributed network of blockchain peers). A transaction is an execution of the smart contract code which can be performed in response to conditions associated with the smart contract being satisfied. The executing of the smart contract may trigger a trusted modification(s) to a state of a digital blockchain ledger. The modification(s) to the blockchain ledger caused by the smart contract execution may be automatically replicated throughout the distributed network of blockchain peers through one or more consensus protocols.

The smart contract may write data to the blockchain in the format of key-value pairs. Furthermore, the smart contract code can read the values stored in a blockchain and use them in application operations. The smart contract code can write the output of various logic operations into the blockchain. The code may be used to create a temporary data structure in a virtual machine or other computing platform. Data written to the blockchain can be public and/or can be encrypted and maintained as private. The temporary data that is used/generated by the smart contract is held in memory by the supplied execution environment, then deleted once the data needed for the blockchain is identified.

A chaincode may include the code interpretation of a smart contract, with additional features. As described herein, the chaincode may be program code deployed on a computing network, where it is executed and validated by chain validators together during a consensus process. The chaincode receives a hash and retrieves from the blockchain a hash associated with the data template created by use of a previously stored feature extractor. If the hashes of the hash identifier and the hash created from the stored identifier template data match, then the chaincode sends an authorization key to the requested service. The chaincode may write to the blockchain data associated with the cryptographic details.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of a traditional blockchain endorsement process 250 between nodes of the blockchain in accordance with an example embodiment. Referring to FIG. 2B, the process 250 may include a transaction proposal 291 sent by an application client node 260 to an endorsing peer node 281. The endorsing peer 281 may verify the client signature and execute a chaincode function to initiate the transaction. The output may include the chaincode results, a set of key/value versions that were read in the chaincode (read set), and the set of keys/values that were written in chaincode (write set). The proposal response 292 is sent back to the client 260 along with an endorsement signature, if approved. In this traditional example, the endorsing peer 281 may sign the proposal response 292 with the endorsing peer's public key.

The client 260 assembles the endorsements into a transaction payload 293 and broadcasts it to an ordering service node 284. The ordering service node 284 then delivers ordered transactions as blocks to all peers 281-283 on a channel. Before committal to the blockchain, each peer 281-283 may validate the transaction. For example, the peers may check the endorsement policy to ensure that the correct allotment of the specified peers have signed the results and authenticate the signatures against the transaction payload 293. Here, the endorsement policy and the endorsement responses may be revealed because the endorser nodes are known and so are their public keys.

Referring again to FIG. 2B, the client node 260 initiates the transaction 291 by constructing and sending a request to the peer node 281, which is an endorser. The client 260 may include an application leveraging a supported software development kit (SDK), which utilizes an available API to generate a transaction proposal. The proposal is a request to invoke a chaincode function so that data can be read and/or written to the ledger (i.e., write new key value pairs for the assets). The SDK may serve as a shim to package the transaction proposal into a properly architected format (e.g., protocol buffer over a remote procedure call (RPC)) and take the client's cryptographic credentials to produce a unique signature for the transaction proposal.

In response, the endorsing peer node 281 may verify (a) that the transaction proposal is well formed, (b) the transaction has not been submitted already in the past (replay-attack protection), (c) the signature is valid, and (d) that the submitter (client 260, in the example) is properly authorized to perform the proposed operation on that channel. The endorsing peer node 281 may take the transaction proposal inputs as arguments to the invoked chaincode function. The chaincode is then executed against a current state database to produce transaction results including a response value, read set, and write set. However, no updates are made to the ledger at this point. In 292, the set of values, along with the endorsing peer node's 281 traceable blind ring signature may be passed back as a proposal response 292 to the SDK of the client 260 which parses the payload for the application to consume.

In response, the application of the client 260 inspects/verifies the endorsing peers signatures and compares the proposal responses to determine if the proposal response is the same. If the chaincode only queried the ledger, the application would inspect the query response and would typically not submit the transaction to the ordering node service 284. If the client application intends to submit the transaction to the ordering node service 284 to update the ledger, the application determines if the specified endorsement policy has been fulfilled before submitting (i.e., did all peer nodes necessary for the transaction endorse the transaction). Here, the client may include only one of multiple parties to the transaction. In this case, each client may have their own endorsing node, and each endorsing node will need to endorse the transaction. The architecture is such that even if an application selects not to inspect responses or otherwise forwards an unendorsed transaction, the endorsement policy will still be enforced by peers and upheld at the commit validation phase.

After successful inspection, in step 293 the client 260 assembles needed information into a transaction message proposal and broadcast it using a transaction message to the ordering node 284. Here, the client 260 may extract the transaction data, encrypt the endorsements with the regulator's public key, construct the zero-knowledge proof, etc. The transaction message may contain transaction proposal data include the read/write sets, the transaction ID, the chaincode ID, zero-knowledge proofs, encrypted endorsement results, and regulator's public key. The ordering node 284 does not need to inspect the entire content of a transaction in order to perform its operation, instead the ordering node 284 may simply receive transactions from all channels in the network, order them chronologically by channel, and create blocks of transactions per channel.

The blocks of the transaction are delivered from the ordering node 284 to all peer nodes 281-283 on the channel. The transactions 294 within the block are validated to ensure any endorsement policy is fulfilled and to ensure that there have been no changes to ledger state for read set variables since the read set was generated by the transaction execution. Transactions in the block are tagged as being valid or invalid. Furthermore, in step 295 each peer node 281-283 appends the block to the channel's chain, and for each valid transaction the write sets are committed to current state database. An event is emitted, to notify the client application that the transaction (invocation) has been immutably appended to the chain, as well as to notify whether the transaction was validated or invalidated.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a permissioned blockchain network 300, which features a distributed, decentralized peer-to-peer architecture. In this example, a blockchain user 302 may initiate a transaction to the permissioned blockchain 304. In this example, the transaction can be a deploy, invoke, or query, and may be issued through a client-side application leveraging an SDK, directly through an API, etc. Networks may provide access to a regulator 306, such as an auditor. A blockchain network operator 308 manages member permissions, such as enrolling the regulator 306 as an “auditor” and the blockchain user 302 as a “client”. An auditor could be restricted only to querying the ledger whereas a client could be authorized to deploy, invoke, and query certain types of chaincode.

A blockchain developer 310 can write chaincode and client-side applications. The blockchain developer 310 can deploy chaincode directly to the network through an interface. To include credentials from a traditional data source 312 in chaincode, the developer 310 could use an out-of-band connection to access the data. In this example, the blockchain user 302 connects to the permissioned blockchain 304 through a peer node 314. Before proceeding with any transactions, the peer node 314 retrieves the user's enrollment and transaction certificates from a certificate authority 316, which manages user roles and permissions. In some cases, blockchain users must possess these digital certificates in order to transact on the permissioned blockchain 304. Meanwhile, a user attempting to utilize chaincode may be required to verify their credentials on the traditional data source 312. To confirm the user's authorization, chaincode can use an out-of-band connection to this data through a traditional processing platform 318.

FIG. 3B illustrates another example of a permissioned blockchain network 320, which features a distributed, decentralized peer-to-peer architecture. In this example, a blockchain user 322 may submit a transaction to the permissioned blockchain 324. In this example, the transaction can be a deploy, invoke, or query, and may be issued through a client-side application leveraging an SDK, directly through an API, etc. Networks may provide access to a regulator 326, such as an auditor. A blockchain network operator 328 manages member permissions, such as enrolling the regulator 326 as an “auditor” and the blockchain user 322 as a “client”. An auditor could be restricted only to querying the ledger whereas a client could be authorized to deploy, invoke, and query certain types of chaincode.

A blockchain developer 330 writes chaincode and client-side applications. The blockchain developer 330 can deploy chaincode directly to the network through an interface. To include credentials from a traditional data source 332 in chaincode, the developer 330 could use an out-of-band connection to access the data. In this example, the blockchain user 322 connects to the network through a peer node 334. Before proceeding with any transactions, the peer node 334 retrieves the user's enrollment and transaction certificates from the certificate authority 336. In some cases, blockchain users must possess these digital certificates in order to transact on the permissioned blockchain 324. Meanwhile, a user attempting to utilize chaincode may be required to verify their credentials on the traditional data source 332. To confirm the user's authorization, chaincode can use an out-of-band connection to this data through a traditional processing platform 338.

FIG. 4A illustrates a communication sequence 400 for endorsement according to example embodiments. Here, a transaction 420 (also referred to as a blockchain storage request) is proposed by a client node 410 to an endorser node 412. The endorser node 412 may simulate the transaction against a current state of a blockchain to determine whether the transaction is valid, and endorse the transaction (sign with a public key of the endorser node 414) and transmit an endorsement response 425 to the client node 410. In response, the client node 410 may generate a zero-knowledge proof in 430 for the endorsement. A further description of the zero-knowledge proof is further described with respect to FIG. 4B. In 440, the client node 410 may transmit the zero-knowledge proof data object along with elements used to create the zero-knowledge proof data object which can include the transaction data, the encrypted endorsement responses, and a regulator's public key to an ordering node 418.

In 450, the ordering node 418 may assemble the zero-knowledge proof and the transaction data into a data block and transmit the data block to committing nodes 414 and 416 for storage on the blockchain. In 460, each of the committing nodes may verify the zero-knowledge proof data object in 460. An example of the verification process is further described with respect to FIG. 4C. If the committing nodes 414 and 416 are able to verify the zero-knowledge proof data object, the committing nodes 414 and 416 can store the data block on their copies of the blockchain.

FIG. 4B illustrates the proof generation process 430 performed by the client node 410 in the example of FIG. 4A. After the client receives endorsement responses from endorsers, the client node may reconstruct the endorsement policy based on the endorser responses. Furthermore, in 431, the client may parse a read/write set, transaction ID, and chaincode ID from endorsement responses, and set u₁=(read/write set, transaction ID, chaincode ID). In 432, the client node may encrypt endorsement responses using a regulator/auditor's public key (u₂). The client may set u₃=encrypt (u₂, endorsement responses, randomness). In 433, the client may encrypt endorsement policy using regulator's key and set u₄=encrypt (u₂, endorsement policy, randomness). In 434, the client may run a prover program using u₁, u₂, u₃, u₄, endorsement responses, non-encrypted endorsement policy as inputs. The output of the program is a zero-knowledge proof. The prover program may be provided from trusted governor/board during an initial setup stage. Referring again to FIG. 4A, when the client 410 sends the zero-knowledge proof to the endorser node 418, the client 410 may also send u₁, u₂, and u₃.

The zero-knowledge proof may be generated by the client node executing a prover program which is provided by the trusted governor/board of the blockchain. The regulator may be a party who has the right to audit any transactions on the blockchain. The regulator possesses a public secret key pair. The public key is known by all participants on blockchain and is used to encrypt endorsements and endorsement policy. The secret key is known only by regulator and is used for decryption. Meanwhile, the prover's program used by the client to generate the zero-knowledge proof data object is a piece of code running on client's side that contains an algorithm to construct zero-knowledge proof. The inputs of the algorithm consist of 1) standard Hyperledger Fabric endorsement responses, including read/write set, transaction ID, chaincode ID; 2) regulator's public key; 3) endorsement responses; 4) randomness used for endorsement responses encryption; 5) encrypted endorsement responses; 6) endorsement policy; 7) randomness used for policy encryption 8) encrypted endorsement policy. The output of the prover program is a standard zkSNARK proof data object.

The client proves his knowledge of the endorser responses and the endorsement policy when the zero knowledge proof constructed via the prover program can be verified as TRUE by a verifier program. The guarantee comes from two aspects: first, the prover and verifier program are pre-designed and approved by both provers and verifiers such that only the correct knowledge can be verified as TRUE; second, the verifier program only accept the proof generated by the prover program. The client needs to reconstruct endorsement policy and needs to generate an encrypted endorsement policy, encrypted endorsement responses, zero-knowledge proof, transaction proposal. Client only needs to store regulator's public key and the randomness used for endorsement policy encryption during blockchain setup.

FIG. 4C illustrates a process 460 of verifying a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement according to example embodiments. For example, the process 460 may be performed by each of the committing nodes 414 and 416 shown in FIG. 4A. In response to receiving a block from the ordering node, in 461 the verifying node reads from chaincode data the encrypted endorsement policy, denoted as u₄, via blockchain application programming interface (API) calls. In 462, for each transaction in the block, the verification node parses u₁, u₂, u₃ and the zero-knowledge proof. Furthermore, in 463, the verification node runs the verifier program with inputs u₁, u₂, u₃, u₄ and the zero-knowledge proof. The output of the verifier program should be TRUE if endorsements satisfy endorsement policy, otherwise the output will be FALSE. If the output is TRUE, the verifying node may store the transaction on the blockchain as a valid transaction.

Like the prover's program, the verifier's program is a piece of code running on validating peers that contains an algorithm to check whether the given zero-knowledge proof is valid or not. The inputs of the algorithm consist of 1) standard Hyperledger Fabric endorsement data, including read/write set, transaction ID, chaincode ID; 2) regulator's public key; 3) encrypted endorsement responses; 4) encrypted endorsement policy; 5) a zkSNARK proof data object. The output of the verifier's program is TRUE if the proof is valid, meaning that provers indeed possess required knowledge to generate the proof; otherwise the output is FALSE.

FIG. 5A illustrates a method 510 a method of generating a zero-knowledge proof for endorsement, according to example embodiments. For example, the method 500 may be performed by a client (e.g., software, system, etc.) that attempts to store a transaction on a blockchain. Referring to FIG. 5A, in 511 the method may include receiving one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain. The responses may include endorsement responses which are typically generated by endorser nodes of the blockchain.

However, rather than collect the endorsement response into a transaction payload, in 512 the method may include extracting transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses, and in 513, generating a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses. Furthermore, in 514, the method may include transmitting the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node (e.g., an ordering node) for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks. Here, the zero-knowledge proof conceals an identity of the one or more endorser nodes and conceals an endorsement policy of the blockchain. However, the zero-knowledge proof preserves an ability to verify that the one or more responses satisfy the endorsement policy.

In some embodiments, the client node may retrieve an encrypted endorsement policy adhered to by the endorser node based on chaincode information included in the endorser response(s). Meanwhile, the transaction data extracted from the endorser responses may include a transaction ID, a chaincode ID, and one or more read/write sets generated by the one or more endorser nodes which are identified from the one or more responses. The client node may encrypt the endorser responses using a regulator's public key which is shared among endorser nodes. The encrypted endorser responses, encrypted endorsement policy, regulators public key, and the extracted transaction data may be input into a zkSNARK program which generates a zero-knowledge proof data object of the endorsement. In some embodiments, the transmitting may further include transmitting the one or more encrypted responses and the public key of the blockchain regulator to the blockchain node for inclusion in the data block among the hash-linked chain of data blocks.

FIG. 5B illustrates a method 520 of verifying a zero-knowledge proof for endorsement, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 5B, in 521, the method may include receiving a message comprising a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement of a blockchain storage request for inclusion within a data block among the blockchain. Here, the message may be received from an ordering node. In 522, the method may include reading an encrypted endorsement policy via application programming interface (API) calls to a chaincode of the blockchain.

Furthermore, in 523, the method may include determining whether the zero-knowledge proof is valid based on the encrypted endorsement policy and a plurality of attributes of the zero-knowledge proof. For example, the plurality of attributes may include one or more of encrypted endorsement responses, a public key of a blockchain regulator, and transaction data of a transaction associated with the blockchain storage request. In response to determining the zero-knowledge proof is valid, in 524, the method may include storing the blockchain storage request within a data section of a data block on the blockchain. In this example, the zero-knowledge proof conceals an identity of the one or more endorser nodes and conceals an endorsement policy of the blockchain. However, the zero-knowledge proof preserves an ability to verify that the one or more responses satisfy the endorsement policy.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example system 600 that includes a physical infrastructure 610 configured to perform various operations according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 6A, the physical infrastructure 610 includes a module 612 and a module 614. The module 614 includes a blockchain 620 and a smart contract 630 (which may reside on the blockchain 620), that may execute any of the operational steps 608 (in module 612) included in any of the example embodiments. The steps/operations 608 may include one or more of the embodiments described or depicted and may represent output or written information that is written or read from one or more smart contracts 630 and/or blockchains 620. The physical infrastructure 610, the module 612, and the module 614 may include one or more computers, servers, processors, memories, and/or wireless communication devices. Further, the module 612 and the module 614 may be a same module.

FIG. 6B illustrates another example system 640 configured to perform various operations according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 6B, the system 640 includes a module 612 and a module 614. The module 614 includes a blockchain 620 and a smart contract 630 (which may reside on the blockchain 620), that may execute any of the operational steps 608 (in module 612) included in any of the example embodiments. The steps/operations 608 may include one or more of the embodiments described or depicted and may represent output or written information that is written or read from one or more smart contracts 630 and/or blockchains 620. The physical infrastructure 610, the module 612, and the module 614 may include one or more computers, servers, processors, memories, and/or wireless communication devices. Further, the module 612 and the module 614 may be a same module.

FIG. 6C illustrates an example system configured to utilize a smart contract configuration among contracting parties and a mediating server configured to enforce the smart contract terms on the blockchain according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 6C, the configuration 650 may represent a communication session, an asset transfer session or a process or procedure that is driven by a smart contract 630 which explicitly identifies one or more user devices 652 and/or 656. The execution, operations and results of the smart contract execution may be managed by a server 654. Content of the smart contract 630 may require digital signatures by one or more of the entities 652 and 656 which are parties to the smart contract transaction. The results of the smart contract execution may be written to a blockchain 620 as a blockchain transaction. The smart contract 630 resides on the blockchain 620 which may reside on one or more computers, servers, processors, memories, and/or wireless communication devices.

FIG. 6D illustrates a system 660 including a blockchain, according to example embodiments. Referring to the example of FIG. 6D, an application programming interface (API) gateway 662 provides a common interface for accessing blockchain logic (e.g., smart contract 630 or other chaincode) and data (e.g., distributed ledger, etc.). In this example, the API gateway 662 is a common interface for performing transactions (invoke, queries, etc.) on the blockchain by connecting one or more entities 652 and 656 to a blockchain peer (i.e., server 654). Here, the server 654 is a blockchain network peer component that holds a copy of the world state and a distributed ledger allowing clients 652 and 656 to query data on the world state as well as submit transactions into the blockchain network where, depending on the smart contract 630 and endorsement policy, endorsing peers will run the smart contracts 630.

The above embodiments may be implemented in hardware, in a computer program executed by a processor, in firmware, or in a combination of the above. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium, such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside in random access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”), erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any other form of storage medium known in the art.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor may read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.

FIG. 7A illustrates a process 700 of a new block being added to a distributed ledger 720, according to example embodiments, and FIG. 7B illustrates contents of a new data block structure 730 for blockchain, according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 7A, clients (not shown) may submit transactions to blockchain nodes 711, 712, and/or 713. Clients may be instructions received from any source to enact activity on the blockchain 720. As an example, clients may be applications that act on behalf of a requester, such as a device, person or entity to propose transactions for the blockchain. The plurality of blockchain peers (e.g., blockchain nodes 711, 712, and 713) may maintain a state of the blockchain network and a copy of the distributed ledger 720. Different types of blockchain nodes/peers may be present in the blockchain network including endorsing peers which simulate and endorse transactions proposed by clients and committing peers which verify endorsements, validate transactions, and commit transactions to the distributed ledger 720. In this example, the blockchain nodes 711, 712, and 713 may perform the role of endorser node, committer node, or both.

The distributed ledger 720 includes a blockchain which stores immutable, sequenced records in blocks, and a state database 724 (current world state) maintaining a current state of the blockchain 722. One distributed ledger 720 may exist per channel and each peer maintains its own copy of the distributed ledger 720 for each channel of which they are a member. The blockchain 722 is a transaction log, structured as hash-linked blocks where each block contains a sequence of N transactions. Blocks may include various components such as shown in FIG. 7B. The linking of the blocks (shown by arrows in FIG. 7A) may be generated by adding a hash of a prior block's header within a block header of a current block. In this way, all transactions on the blockchain 722 are sequenced and cryptographically linked together preventing tampering with blockchain data without breaking the hash links. Furthermore, because of the links, the latest block in the blockchain 722 represents every transaction that has come before it. The blockchain 722 may be stored on a peer file system (local or attached storage), which supports an append-only blockchain workload.

The current state of the blockchain 722 and the distributed ledger 722 may be stored in the state database 724. Here, the current state data represents the latest values for all keys ever included in the chain transaction log of the blockchain 722. Chaincode invocations execute transactions against the current state in the state database 724. To make these chaincode interactions extremely efficient, the latest values of all keys are stored in the state database 724. The state database 724 may include an indexed view into the transaction log of the blockchain 722, it can therefore be regenerated from the chain at any time. The state database 724 may automatically get recovered (or generated if needed) upon peer startup, before transactions are accepted.

Endorsing nodes receive transactions from clients and endorse the transaction based on simulated results. Endorsing nodes hold smart contracts which simulate the transaction proposals. When an endorsing node endorses a transaction, the endorsing nodes creates a transaction endorsement which is a signed response from the endorsing node to the client application indicating the endorsement of the simulated transaction. The method of endorsing a transaction depends on an endorsement policy which may be specified within chaincode. An example of an endorsement policy is “the majority of endorsing peers must endorse the transaction”. Different channels may have different endorsement policies. Endorsed transactions are forward by the client application to ordering service 710.

The ordering service 710 accepts endorsed transactions, orders them into a block, and delivers the blocks to the committing peers. For example, the ordering service 710 may initiate a new block when a threshold of transactions has been reached, a timer times out, or another condition. In the example of FIG. 7A, blockchain node 712 is a committing peer that has received a new data new data block 730 for storage on blockchain 720. The first block in the blockchain may be referred to as a genesis block which includes information about the blockchain, its members, the data stored therein, etc.

The ordering service 710 may be made up of a cluster of orderers. The ordering service 710 does not process transactions, smart contracts, or maintain the shared ledger. Rather, the ordering service 710 may accept the endorsed transactions and specifies the order in which those transactions are committed to the distributed ledger 720. The architecture of the blockchain network may be designed such that the specific implementation of ‘ordering’ (e.g., Solo, Kafka, BFT, etc.) becomes a pluggable component.

Transactions are written to the distributed ledger 720 in a consistent order. The order of transactions is established to ensure that the updates to the state database 724 are valid when they are committed to the network. Unlike a cryptocurrency blockchain system (e.g., Bitcoin, etc.) where ordering occurs through the solving of a cryptographic puzzle, or mining, in this example the parties of the distributed ledger 720 may choose the ordering mechanism that best suits that network.

When the ordering service 710 initializes a new data block 730, the new data block 730 may be broadcast to committing peers (e.g., blockchain nodes 711, 712, and 713). In response, each committing peer validates the transaction within the new data block 730 by checking to make sure that the read set and the write set still match the current world state in the state database 724. Specifically, the committing peer can determine whether the read data that existed when the endorsers simulated the transaction is identical to the current world state in the state database 724. When the committing peer validates the transaction, the transaction is written to the blockchain 722 on the distributed ledger 720, and the state database 724 is updated with the write data from the read-write set. If a transaction fails, that is, if the committing peer finds that the read-write set does not match the current world state in the state database 724, the transaction ordered into a block will still be included in that block, but it will be marked as invalid, and the state database 724 will not be updated.

Referring to FIG. 7B, a new data block 730 (also referred to as a data block) that is stored on the blockchain 722 of the distributed ledger 720 may include multiple data segments such as a block header 740, block data 750, and block metadata 760. It should be appreciated that the various depicted blocks and their contents, such as new data block 730 and its contents. shown in FIG. 7B are merely examples and are not meant to limit the scope of the example embodiments. The new data block 730 may store transactional information of N transaction(s) (e.g., 1, 10, 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, etc.) within the block data 750. The new data block 730 may also include a link to a previous block (e.g., on the blockchain 722 in FIG. 7A) within the block header 740. In particular, the block header 740 may include a hash of a previous block's header. The block header 740 may also include a unique block number, a hash of the block data 750 of the new data block 730, and the like. The block number of the new data block 730 may be unique and assigned in various orders, such as an incremental/sequential order starting from zero.

The block data 750 may store transactional information of each transaction that is recorded within the new data block 730. For example, the transaction data may include one or more of a type of the transaction, a version, a timestamp, a channel ID of the distributed ledger 720, a transaction ID, an epoch, a payload visibility, a chaincode path (deploy tx), a chaincode name, a chaincode version, input (chaincode and functions), a client (creator) identify such as a public key and certificate, a signature of the client, identities of endorsers, endorser signatures, a proposal hash, chaincode events, response status, namespace, a read set (list of key and version read by the transaction, etc.), a write set (list of key and value, etc.), a start key, an end key, a list of keys, a Merkel tree query summary, and the like. The transaction data may be stored for each of the N transactions.

Traditional endorsement data is typically stored in the block data 750 and includes a list of endorser's identity (certificate, public key) and endorser's signature. In the example embodiments, the transaction's endorsement data within the data section 750 of a block on the blockchain will be different. In particular, zero-knowledge proof information 752 may be stored in the block data 750 which may include a zero-knowledge proof data object, encrypted endorsement responses, a regulator's public key, and the like. Furthermore, although in FIG. 7B the new data 752 is depicted in the block data 750 it could also be located in the block header 740 or the block metadata 760.

The block metadata 760 may store multiple fields of metadata (e.g., as a byte array, etc.). Metadata fields may include signature on block creation, a reference to a last configuration block, a transaction filter identifying valid and invalid transactions within the block, last offset persisted of an ordering service that ordered the block, and the like. The signature, the last configuration block, and the orderer metadata may be added by the ordering service 710. Meanwhile, a committer of the block (such as blockchain node 712) may add validity/invalidity information based on an endorsement policy, verification of read/write sets, and the like. The transaction filter may include a byte array of a size equal to the number of transactions in the block data 750 and a validation code identifying whether a transaction was valid/invalid.

FIG. 7C illustrates an embodiment of a blockchain 770 for digital content in accordance with the embodiments described herein. The digital content may include one or more files and associated information. The files may include media, images, video, audio, text, links, graphics, animations, web pages, documents, or other forms of digital content. The immutable, append-only aspects of the blockchain serve as a safeguard to protect the integrity, validity, and authenticity of the digital content, making it suitable use in legal proceedings where admissibility rules apply or other settings where evidence is taken in to consideration or where the presentation and use of digital information is otherwise of interest. In this case, the digital content may be referred to as digital evidence.

The blockchain may be formed in various ways. In one embodiment, the digital content may be included in and accessed from the blockchain itself. For example, each block of the blockchain may store a hash value of reference information (e.g., header, value, etc.) along the associated digital content. The hash value and associated digital content may then be encrypted together. Thus, the digital content of each block may be accessed by decrypting each block in the blockchain, and the hash value of each block may be used as a basis to reference a previous block. This may be illustrated as follows:

Block 1 Block 2 . . . Block N Hash Value 1 Hash Value 2 Hash Value N Digital Content 1 Digital Content 2 Digital Content N

In one embodiment, the digital content may be not included in the blockchain. For example, the blockchain may store the encrypted hashes of the content of each block without any of the digital content. The digital content may be stored in another storage area or memory address in association with the hash value of the original file. The other storage area may be the same storage device used to store the blockchain or may be a different storage area or even a separate relational database. The digital content of each block may be referenced or accessed by obtaining or querying the hash value of a block of interest and then looking up that has value in the storage area, which is stored in correspondence with the actual digital content. This operation may be performed, for example, a database gatekeeper. This may be illustrated as follows:

$\begin{matrix} \underset{\_}{Blockchain} & \underset{\_}{{Storage}\mspace{14mu} {Area}} \\ {{Block}\mspace{14mu} 1\mspace{14mu} {Hash}\mspace{14mu} {Value}} & {{Block}\mspace{14mu} 1\mspace{14mu} {Hash}\mspace{14mu} {Value}\mspace{11mu} \ldots \mspace{14mu} {Content}} \\ \vdots & \vdots \\ {{Block}\mspace{14mu} N\mspace{14mu} {Hash}\mspace{14mu} {Value}} & {{Block}\mspace{14mu} N\mspace{14mu} {Hash}\mspace{14mu} {Value}\mspace{11mu} \ldots \mspace{14mu} {Content}} \end{matrix}$

In the example embodiment of FIG. 7C, the blockchain 770 includes a number of blocks 778 ₁, 778 ₂, . . . 778 _(N) cryptographically linked in an ordered sequence, where N≥1. The encryption used to link the blocks 778 ₁, 778 ₂, . . . 778 _(N) may be any of a number of keyed or un-keyed Hash functions. In one embodiment, the blocks 778 ₁, 778 ₂, . . . 778 _(N) are subject to a hash function which produces n-bit alphanumeric outputs (where n is 256 or another number) from inputs that are based on information in the blocks. Examples of such a hash function include, but are not limited to, a SHA-type (SHA stands for Secured Hash Algorithm) algorithm, Merkle-Damgard algorithm, HAIFA algorithm, Merkle-tree algorithm, nonce-based algorithm, and a non-collision-resistant PRF algorithm. In another embodiment, the blocks 778 ₁, 778 ₂, . . . , 778 _(N) may be cryptographically linked by a function that is different from a hash function. For purposes of illustration, the following description is made with reference to a hash function, e.g., SHA-2.

Each of the blocks 778 ₁, 778 ₂, . . . , 778 _(N) in the blockchain includes a header, a version of the file, and a value. The header and the value are different for each block as a result of hashing in the blockchain. In one embodiment, the value may be included in the header. As described in greater detail below, the version of the file may be the original file or a different version of the original file.

The first block 778 ₁ in the blockchain is referred to as the genesis block and includes the header 772 ₁, original file 774 ₁, and an initial value 776 ₁. The hashing scheme used for the genesis block, and indeed in all subsequent blocks, may vary. For example, all the information in the first block 778 ₁ may be hashed together and at one time, or each or a portion of the information in the first block 778 ₁ may be separately hashed and then a hash of the separately hashed portions may be performed.

The header 772 ₁ may include one or more initial parameters, which, for example, may include a version number, timestamp, nonce, root information, difficulty level, consensus protocol, duration, media format, source, descriptive keywords, and/or other information associated with original file 774 ₁ and/or the blockchain. The header 772 ₁ may be generated automatically (e.g., by blockchain network managing software) or manually by a blockchain participant. Unlike the header in other blocks 778 ₂ to 778 _(N) in the blockchain, the header 772 ₁ in the genesis block does not reference a previous block, simply because there is no previous block.

The original file 774 ₁ in the genesis block may be, for example, data as captured by a device with or without processing prior to its inclusion in the blockchain. The original file 774 ₁ is received through the interface of the system from the device, media source, or node. The original file 774 ₁ is associated with metadata, which, for example, may be generated by a user, the device, and/or the system processor, either manually or automatically. The metadata may be included in the first block 778 ₁ in association with the original file 774 ₁.

The value 776 ₁ in the genesis block is an initial value generated based on one or more unique attributes of the original file 774 ₁. In one embodiment, the one or more unique attributes may include the hash value for the original file 774 ₁, metadata for the original file 774 ₁, and other information associated with the file. In one implementation, the initial value 776 ₁ may be based on the following unique attributes:

-   -   1) SHA-2 computed hash value for the original file     -   2) originating device ID     -   3) starting timestamp for the original file     -   4) initial storage location of the original file     -   5) blockchain network member ID for software to currently         control the original file and associated metadata

The other blocks 778 ₂ to 778 _(N) in the blockchain also have headers, files, and values. However, unlike the first block 772 ₁, each of the headers 772 ₂ to 772 _(N) in the other blocks includes the hash value of an immediately preceding block. The hash value of the immediately preceding block may be just the hash of the header of the previous block or may be the hash value of the entire previous block. By including the hash value of a preceding block in each of the remaining blocks, a trace can be performed from the Nth block back to the genesis block (and the associated original file) on a block-by-block basis, as indicated by arrows 780, to establish an auditable and immutable chain-of-custody.

Each of the header 772 ₂ to 772 _(N) in the other blocks may also include other information, e.g., version number, timestamp, nonce, root information, difficulty level, consensus protocol, and/or other parameters or information associated with the corresponding files and/or the blockchain in general.

The files 774 ₂ to 774 _(N) in the other blocks may be equal to the original file or may be a modified version of the original file in the genesis block depending, for example, on the type of processing performed. The type of processing performed may vary from block to block. The processing may involve, for example, any modification of a file in a preceding block, such as redacting information or otherwise changing the content of, taking information away from, or adding or appending information to the files.

Additionally, or alternatively, the processing may involve merely copying the file from a preceding block, changing a storage location of the file, analyzing the file from one or more preceding blocks, moving the file from one storage or memory location to another, or performing action relative to the file of the blockchain and/or its associated metadata. Processing which involves analyzing a file may include, for example, appending, including, or otherwise associating various analytics, statistics, or other information associated with the file.

The values in each of the other blocks 776 ₂ to 776 _(N) in the other blocks are unique values and are all different as a result of the processing performed. For example, the value in any one block corresponds to an updated version of the value in the previous block. The update is reflected in the hash of the block to which the value is assigned. The values of the blocks therefore provide an indication of what processing was performed in the blocks and also permit a tracing through the blockchain back to the original file. This tracking confirms the chain-of-custody of the file throughout the entire blockchain.

For example, consider the case where portions of the file in a previous block are redacted, blocked out, or pixelated in order to protect the identity of a person shown in the file. In this case, the block including the redacted file will include metadata associated with the redacted file, e.g., how the redaction was performed, who performed the redaction, timestamps where the redaction(s) occurred, etc. The metadata may be hashed to form the value. Because the metadata for the block is different from the information that was hashed to form the value in the previous block, the values are different from one another and may be recovered when decrypted.

In one embodiment, the value of a previous block may be updated (e.g., a new hash value computed) to form the value of a current block when any one or more of the following occurs. The new hash value may be computed by hashing all or a portion of the information noted below, in this example embodiment.

-   -   a) new SHA-2 computed hash value if the file has been processed         in any way (e.g., if the file was redacted, copied, altered,         accessed, or some other action was taken)     -   b) new storage location for the file     -   c) new metadata identified associated with the file     -   d) transfer of access or control of the file from one blockchain         participant to another blockchain participant

FIG. 7D illustrates an embodiment of a block which may represent the structure of the blocks in the blockchain 790 in accordance with one embodiment. The block, Block_(i), includes a header 772 _(i), a file 774 _(i), and a value 776 _(i).

The header 772 _(i) includes a hash value of a previous block Block_(i−1) and additional reference information, which, for example, may be any of the types of information (e.g., header information including references, characteristics, parameters, etc.) discussed herein. All blocks reference the hash of a previous block except, of course, the genesis block. The hash value of the previous block may be just a hash of the header in the previous block or a hash of all or a portion of the information in the previous block, including the file and metadata.

The file 774 _(i) includes a plurality of data, such as Data 1, Data 2, . . . , Data N in sequence. The data are tagged with metadata Metadata 1, Metadata 2, . . . , Metadata N which describe the content and/or characteristics associated with the data. For example, the metadata for each data may include information to indicate a timestamp for the data, process the data, keywords indicating the persons or other content depicted in the data, and/or other features that may be helpful to establish the validity and content of the file as a whole, and particularly its use a digital evidence, for example, as described in connection with an embodiment discussed below. In addition to the metadata, each data may be tagged with reference REF₁, REF₂, . . . , REF_(N) to a previous data to prevent tampering, gaps in the file, and sequential reference through the file.

Once the metadata is assigned to the data (e.g., through a smart contract), the metadata cannot be altered without the hash changing, which can easily be identified for invalidation. The metadata, thus, creates a data log of information that may be accessed for use by participants in the blockchain.

The value 776 _(i) is a hash value or other value computed based on any of the types of information previously discussed. For example, for any given block Block_(i), the value for that block may be updated to reflect the processing that was performed for that block, e.g., new hash value, new storage location, new metadata for the associated file, transfer of control or access, identifier, or other action or information to be added. Although the value in each block is shown to be separate from the metadata for the data of the file and header, the value may be based, in part or whole, on this metadata in another embodiment.

Once the blockchain 770 is formed, at any point in time, the immutable chain-of-custody for the file may be obtained by querying the blockchain for the transaction history of the values across the blocks. This query, or tracking procedure, may begin with decrypting the value of the block that is most currently included (e.g., the last (N^(th)) block), and then continuing to decrypt the value of the other blocks until the genesis block is reached and the original file is recovered. The decryption may involve decrypting the headers and files and associated metadata at each block, as well.

Decryption is performed based on the type of encryption that took place in each block. This may involve the use of private keys, public keys, or a public key-private key pair. For example, when asymmetric encryption is used, blockchain participants or a processor in the network may generate a public key and private key pair using a predetermined algorithm. The public key and private key are associated with each other through some mathematical relationship. The public key may be distributed publicly to serve as an address to receive messages from other users, e.g., an IP address or home address. The private key is kept secret and used to digitally sign messages sent to other blockchain participants. The signature is included in the message so that the recipient can verify using the public key of the sender. This way, the recipient can be sure that only the sender could have sent this message.

Generating a key pair may be analogous to creating an account on the blockchain, but without having to actually register anywhere. Also, every transaction that is executed on the blockchain is digitally signed by the sender using their private key. This signature ensures that only the owner of the account can track and process (if within the scope of permission determined by a smart contract) the file of the blockchain.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example system 800 that supports one or more of the example embodiments described and/or depicted herein. The system 800 comprises a computer system/server 802, which is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with computer system/server 802 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

Computer system/server 802 may be described in the general context of computer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer system/server 802 may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

As shown in FIG. 8, computer system/server 802 in cloud computing node 800 is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing device. The components of computer system/server 802 may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 804, a system memory 806, and a bus that couples various system components including system memory 806 to processor 804.

The bus represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 802 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 802, and it includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media. System memory 806, in one embodiment, implements the flow diagrams of the other figures. The system memory 806 can include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM) 810 and/or cache memory 812. Computer system/server 802 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 814 can be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, each can be connected to the bus by one or more data media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below, memory 806 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of various embodiments of the application.

Program/utility 816, having a set (at least one) of program modules 818, may be stored in memory 806 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. Program modules 818 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of various embodiments of the application as described herein.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present application may be embodied as a system, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Computer system/server 802 may also communicate with one or more external devices 820 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 822, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 802; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 802 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via I/O interfaces 824. Still yet, computer system/server 802 can communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 826. As depicted, network adapter 826 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 802 via a bus. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system/server 802. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

Although an exemplary embodiment of at least one of a system, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium has been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the application is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the system of the various figures can be performed by one or more of the modules or components described herein or in a distributed architecture and may include a transmitter, receiver or pair of both. For example, all or part of the functionality performed by the individual modules, may be performed by one or more of these modules. Further, the functionality described herein may be performed at various times and in relation to various events, internal or external to the modules or components. Also, the information sent between various modules can be sent between the modules via at least one of: a data network, the Internet, a voice network, an Internet Protocol network, a wireless device, a wired device and/or via plurality of protocols. Also, the messages sent or received by any of the modules may be sent or received directly and/or via one or more of the other modules.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodied as a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, a smartphone or any other suitable computing device, or combination of devices. Presenting the above-described functions as being performed by a “system” is not intended to limit the scope of the present application in any way but is intended to provide one example of many embodiments. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be implemented in localized and distributed forms consistent with computing technology.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in this specification have been presented as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or the like.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified unit of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may be stored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a hard disk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any other such medium used to store data.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.

It will be readily understood that the components of the application, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the application as claimed but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the application.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that the above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although the application has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent.

While preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, it is to be understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the application is to be defined solely by the appended claims when considered with a full range of equivalents and modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices, software platforms etc.) thereto. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system, comprising: a network interface configured to receive one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain; and a processor configured to extract transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses, and generate a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses, wherein the processor is further configured to control the network interface to transmit the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks.
 2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the zero-knowledge proof conceals an identity of the one or more endorser nodes and conceals an endorsement policy of the blockchain.
 3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the zero-knowledge proof preserves an ability to verify that the one or more responses satisfy the endorsement policy.
 4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the transaction data comprises a transaction ID, a chaincode ID, and one or more read/write sets generated by the one or more endorser nodes which are identified by the processor from the one or more responses.
 5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to encrypt the one or more responses with a public key of a blockchain regulator, and generate the zero-knowledge proof based on the one or more encrypted responses.
 6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the network interface is to transmit the one or more encrypted responses and the public key of the blockchain regulator to the blockchain node for inclusion in the data block among the hash-linked chain of data blocks.
 7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to retrieve an encrypted endorsement policy adhered to by the endorser node, wherein the processor generates the zero-knowledge proof based on the encrypted endorsement policy.
 8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to reconstruct the encrypted endorsement policy based data included in the on the one or more responses received from the one or more endorser nodes.
 9. A method of a client node, comprising: receiving one or more responses to a storage request for a blockchain from one or more endorser nodes of the blockchain; extracting transaction data of the storage request included in the one or more responses; generating a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement based on the extracted transaction data and the one or more responses; and transmitting the zero-knowledge proof to a blockchain node for inclusion within a data block among a hash-linked chain of data blocks.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the zero-knowledge proof conceals an identity of the one or more endorser nodes and conceals an endorsement policy of the blockchain.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the zero-knowledge proof preserves an ability to verify that the one or more responses satisfy the endorsement policy.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein the transaction data comprises a transaction ID, a chaincode ID, and one or more read/write sets generated by the one or more endorser nodes which are identified from the one or more responses.
 13. The method of claim 9, further comprising encrypting the one or more responses with a public key of a blockchain regulator, and generating the zero-knowledge proof based on the one or more encrypted responses.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting the one or more encrypted responses and the public key of the blockchain regulator to the blockchain node for inclusion in the data block among the hash-linked chain of data blocks.
 15. The method of claim 9, further comprising retrieving an encrypted endorsement policy adhered to by the endorser node, wherein the generating further comprises generating the zero-knowledge proof based on the encrypted endorsement policy.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the retrieving comprises reconstructing the encrypted endorsement policy based data included in the on the one or more responses received from the one or more endorser nodes.
 17. A method of a committing node, comprising: receiving a message comprising a zero-knowledge proof of endorsement of a blockchain storage request for inclusion within a data block among the blockchain; reading an encrypted endorsement policy via application programming interface (API) calls to a chaincode of the blockchain; determining whether the zero-knowledge proof is valid based on the encrypted endorsement policy and a plurality of attributes of the zero-knowledge proof; and in response to determining the zero-knowledge proof is valid, storing the blockchain storage request within a data section of a data block on the blockchain.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of attributes comprise one or more of encrypted endorsement responses, a public key of a blockchain regulator, and transaction data of a transaction associated with the blockchain storage request.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the zero-knowledge proof conceals an identity of the one or more endorser nodes and conceals an endorsement policy of the blockchain.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the zero-knowledge proof preserves an ability to verify that the one or more responses satisfy the endorsement policy. 